Paul Joyce drops late night news of major breakthrough as Liverpool close in on Arne Slot

He elaborated on that major development in an article for The Times which declared that ‘only the official paperwork is now outstanding on the deal’, with Anfield chiefs reaching agreement with the Rotterdam club after their initial £7.7m bid was rejected earlier this week.

Slot is now set to finalise the terms of his arrival at Liverpool and is expected to bring several members of his backroom staff’ with him from De Kuip.

Barring any sudden late collapse, it now seems a matter of when and not if Slot will be appointed as Jurgen Klopp’s successor, and the proposed deal has moved remarkably quickly.

This time last week it seemed that Ruben Amorim was the hot favourite for the gig, but after three months of speculation following the German’s exit announcement, the past five days have seen the situation accelerate rapidly.

With the Dutchman openly declaring his enthusiasm to take on the Liverpool job, we mightn’t be too far away from hearing an official announcement from the club that he’ll be the man to lead the Reds into a new era.

Even if Slot may not have been the first choice of many LFC fans all along, at least his seemingly imminent appointment means that Klopp’s reign won’t end with the identity of his replacement shrouded in mystery.

Piece by piece, the succession plan is falling into place. First we had Michael Edwards returning, and then came new sporting director Richard Hughes. Now it seems that the Feyenoord boss will shortly be on his way.

We don’t expect him to replicate his predecessor’s impact immediately, but if he’s in situ by the start of the summer and he goes into the transfer window with clear plans in mind, that should make his major transition at Liverpool go relatively smoothly.